UCLA Health's Organizational Development services are grounded in behavioral science with the focus of establishing a culture that promotes organizational effectiveness, adaptability to change, and alignment with the organization's mission and vision. Some of the areas that may be addressed during Organizational Development engagements include team cohesion, change management, performance improvement, strategic planning, employee engagement and leadership development.

To learn more about our organizational development consulting services, please contact [email protected].

 

What is Organizational Development (OD)?

One classic definition of organization development comes from Richard Beckhard's 1969 Organization Development: Strategies and Models: “Organization Development is an effort planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes,' using behavioral-science knowledge.”

 

What are the benefits of OD?

 Improved employee learning and development

• Better communication and collaboration
• More effective decision-making
• Increased employee motivation and trust
• Stronger leadership
• Increased retention and morale
• Increased productivity and effectiveness
• Streamlined processes and procedures

 

What does the OD process look like?

 The phases below are adapted from Peter Block’s, Flawless Consulting and used during each OD engagement. Throughout each stage of the OD process, the OD consultant will partner with you to determine what success looks like and how to approach each area of opportunity in a way that will be most effective and sustainable.

1. Entry and Contracting – This phase includes initial meetings with the OD consultant to better understand the opportunity and desired outcomes. Mutual expectations and key deliverables from the engagement are established and agreed upon.
2. Data Collection and Diagnosis – This phase includes information gathering and analysis. There are a variety of ways to gather data, some include survey assessments, focus groups and observation. Once the root cause is determined, a customized intervention strategy is formalized.
3. Feedback and the Decision to Act – During this phase, the OD consultant shares feedback and analysis from the previous stage and next steps for the planned intervention.
4. Implementation – This is when the intervention takes place, which may include a variety of activities relating to the overarching goals of the project. Some examples are included in the next section under “Tools and Resources.”
5. Extension, Recycle, or Termination – This is when the whole process is evaluated and it’s determined how to best proceed.

 

What are some tools and resources that may be used during an OD intervention?

• Climate Assessment of teams/workplace via surveys and/or focus groups
• Strategic Planning & Creating Vision & Values Statements
• SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)
• Action Planning
• Assessment based team interventions (DiSC, MBTI, EQ)